Addicted To Comfort
Modern humans are so addicted to comfort that we kick and scream when things don't go our way. At the slightest inconvenience, we rush back to our bubble of comfort.
This makes us fragile. We already are, but an obsession with comfort only makes us more so.
And the worst part is how we miss out on the most critical aspect of meaning found only in hardness.
Iron sharpens iron.
Hard things make you appreciate soft things. Soft things define hard things. This duality is foundational to a well-balanced life and finding actual happiness.
You can't know what happiness is without knowing its opposite.
We each have our definitions of a happy and successful life. Some people want constant action and stress because it makes them feel alive. Some people need attention and will give up a lot of sanities to get it as they deal with crazy toxic people.
Some of us want simple and peaceful lives, so we have the time and space to go deep into our interests. And all of us have a dose of this all that we tend towards.
The universal is we tend to avoid obstacles. We've grown up in a prosperous culture where corporations have been figuring out how to get reliant on their products and services for years. I don't blame anyone for this since innovation is better for us all.
One of the byproducts of technology is the human inability to adapt to change if that change preys on our human weaknesses. This "Mismatch" is the foundational explanation of everything modern humans face in a highly industrialized and innovative society.
Of course, I could go on and on, but the idea I want to leave you with today is simple.
Embrace hard things. When you're stressed or feeling sick or tired, remind yourself how this is the price you pay for appreciation—appreciation of the times when you have safety, comfort, and feel great.
You can't appreciate or even know the other side without touching the opposite of a thing. They are intricately linked. They are the same: black defines white, and white represents black. Without night there is no day, and vice versa.
Here's an excerpt from The Alamnack of Naval Ravikanet (Must read - get free pdf here)
"Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest."
"Simple heuristic: If you're evenly split on a difficult decision, take the path more painful in the short term. If you have two choices to make, and they're relatively equal choices, take a more difficult and more painful path in the short term.
What's going on is one of these paths requires short-term pain. And the other path leads to pain further out in the future. And what your brain is doing through conflict avoidance is trying to push off the short-term pain.
By definition, if the two are even and one has short-term pain, that path has long-term gain associated. With the law of compound interest, the long-term gain is what you want to go toward. Your brain is overvaluing the side with short-term happiness and trying to avoid the one with short-term pain.
So you have to cancel the tendency out (it's a powerful subconscious tendency) by leaning into the pain. As you know, most of the gains in life come from suffering in the short term so that you can get paid in the long term."
Stay Wild,
Founder/CEO, Wild Foods & Better Human Podcast & Newsletter
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Worth Watching
The Best Mental Health Advice I've Ever Heard - Johann Hari
"All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: it's one permanent object to oppress and cripple him."
-H. L. Mencken
💡 Useful Tips Corner 💡
🍳 Quick protein dish → Frozen sausages → I keep these in our freezer at all times. One box is usually a quick protein meal for me. Super easy to reheat. I usually get organic if it's there.
🦾 A principle for life → Don't force. So much misery is self-inflicted by wanting things to be different from how they are. Why not just accept and move forward?
💬 Quote → "The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible." -David Ogilvy
🎥 Video 💰→ Fascinating Bread making in Uzbekistan → Watch the video
🧠 Psychology → The Dunning–Kruger effect is the cognitive bias whereby people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Some researchers also include in their definition the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills.
♟ Uber fact → nature is beautiful
